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Vegan burritos: Fast and delicious
An article in today’s Tulsa World aimed to make the case that vegan diets are difficult and boring. Pretending that she wanted to explore veganism for five days, the author started out with her mind made up that she was going to hate eating this way. And she made the food choices to prove it.
Her sample menus were a determined effort to showcase vegan diets as awful. Breakfast smoothies made with black tea? Salad and sweet potato French fries as an entire lunch menu?
Anyone with a little bit of commonsense and an open mind can do better than that. There are lots of great new vegan foods on the market to explore, but you don’t actually have to think outside the box at all to plan healthy vegan meals.
Here is a menu for beginning and aspiring vegans that uses foods available in most supermarkets. And you don’t even have to know how to cook.
Breakfast
Oatmeal with chopped walnuts and chopped dried fruit. Add almond, rice or soymilk if you like.
Whole wheat English muffin with Tofutti brand Better Than Cream Cheese
Calcium- fortified orange juice
Coffee or tea with Mocha Mix nondairy creamer
Midmorning snack
Whole wheat toast with peanut or almond butter
Tea
Lunch
Hummus in pita bread with chopped raw veggies
Progresso brand vegetarian lentil soup
Apple
Ginger snaps
Afternoon snack
Trail mix
Dinner
Refried black or pinto beans in corn tortillas, topped with guacamole and salsa
Salad with oil and vinegar dressing
Comments
Thanks for posting this, I saw your twitter. at least most of the people in the comments section have some good defenses. And jesus, they died for deliciousness...we have a lot of work to do and I think we've gone far too long minimizing veganism as merely a "diet"
You went too easy on her. This kind of BS article has already been done a hundred times. The laziness in changing eating patterns is compounded by the laziness of the journalism. Someone should make a compendium of all these "I Tried Being Vegan For a Week" pieces to show what a ridiculous cliche it is.
This journalist from Tulsa was not very thorough in her research and was "de mauvaise foi". Thank you Ms. Virginia Messina for your wonderful response and great yummy vegan menu. Indeed, we have here in Seattle many great vegan restaurants and many of the food they serve are actually gourmet. Meat-eating in my opinion opens too many doors to illnesses, particularly Alzheimer's and diabetes. Bon Appetit!
I saw that article as well - was pathetic example and half-hearted attempt at eating vegan. One thing it seems most don't understand is that vegans are typically not vegan because they love eating fruits/veggies and tofu - rather they are vegan because of compassion for animals and concern for the environment - if that means you end up eating stuff that doesn't taste as good then so be it. I'd rather eat stuff I don't like instead of being responsible for causing additional needless harm. Also there seems a lot of equating Vegetarians with Vegans and in my experience those groups are pretty different. I would say, in "general", most vegetarians are doing it for health reasons; to feel somewhat better about themselves; or as a midpoint in the goal of working towards being vegan. That is not meant as criticism- any little thing you do to help is better than nothing, but I do think the reason behind why people choose things is important to understand their reasoning. Which is why so many of these "reporters" that do a "1-week Vegan Experiment" fail, and usually make fun of us - because their reasons/motivations are not based on compassion for animals and the environment.
I dunno about other vegans but here is what my main meals have been for the past week:
Friday
Breakfast – bacon flavored “tempah” (good stuff!) and bowl of grits with fake butter, grapefruit juice and coffee (with Turbinado sugar) - $3.00
Lunch – Chinese curried tofu with onions and white rice and a soda - $6.50
Dinner – Bowl of Progresso Garden Vegetable soup and a serving of long grain and wild rice, a beer and later for desert a “Marry Me” ice cream bar (actually tofu but darn you wouldn’t know – it’s good!). - $6.00
Saturday
Breakfast - bacon flavored “tempah” again and bowl of raisin & walnut oatmeal (made with water), coffee (with Turbinado sugar) and chocolate soy shake. - $2.50
Lunch – Half a “veggie-sub” (no cheese) on wheat from Quizno’s (yum!), some “Fritos” and a soda – later had a “Edy’s Frozen Strawberry Fruit Bar” - $6.00
Dinner – leftover night – finished off the Chinese from Fridays lunch as well as the veggie-sub from today’s lunch. Also had a big glass of organic red wine and later some hot tea with gingersnap cookies. - $4.00
Sunday
Breakfast - Bisquick waffle with syrup and fake butter, cup of coffee (with Turbinado sugar) and chocolate soy shake. - $.75
Lunch – Cedar Lake "chops" - breaded, cranberry sauce and stuffing. Glass of Cranberry/Black Cherry juice - $1.50
Dinner – Wheat spaghetti with red sauce, asparagus, garlic bread and organic red wine- $2.50
Monday
Breakfast - Bisquick pancakes with syrup and fake butter, chocolate soy shake and cup of coffee. - $1.50
Lunch – Chips and salsa, smoked almonds, a banana, dark orange chocolate bar and a RC soda - $4.25
Dinner – leftover night – finished off the Wheat spaghetti with red sauce. Along with sauteed mushrooms and onions and a glass of Gatorade - $3.25
Tuesday
Breakfast - Flaax oatmeal, coffee and OJ - $2.00
Lunch – Peanut butter and jelly sandwich, oreo's, frito's and a apple - $3.00
Dinner – Polenta with red sauce, shi~tt~akie mushrooms and onions. Side of canned corn. Followed up with vanilla bean tofutti ice cream - $3.50
Wednesday
Breakfast - Bowl of organic amaranth cereal with oat milk and cup of coffee and also cranberry/black cherry juice- $2.50
Lunch – Rice and Bean Burrito, garden salad with oil/vinegar and mandarin oranges. Soda - $2.00
Dinner – Peruvian dish "Papa a la Huancayna" (sic!) which is basically boiled potato halves covered in a hot pepper, onion, garlic, creamy cheese (fake!) sauce. Also had Peruvian corn and fried plantains. Drink was "Chicha Morada" (sic!) which is blue corn, pineapple/water/sugar and lime.- $2.00
Thursday
Breakfast - Bowl of grits with pepper and butter, banana and glass of chocolate hemp milk - $1.50
Lunch – Sauteed potatoes with "Pork" Chops, Asparagus, Onions, Peppers and Mushrooms. Dessert - apricot halves and a soda - $3.00
Dinner – Orzo with Tofurky italian sausage sauteed with onions, mushrooms, asparagus & peppers. As an appetizer, falafel with a green mint sauce. Dessert Stuffed apple crisp a la mode with vanilla tofutti ice cream and chocolate syurp. Gatorade to drink. $3.00
I also want to add that becoming vegan is tough for several people. Going vegan for a week doesn't prove that it's impossible. Step-by-step is the way many people go, and the way I recommend to those who think about changing their eating habits.
And I want to add that legumes (lentils, chick peas, kidney beans, mung beans, ... etc etc etc) don't get enough credit, and most people have never heard of sauteeing nuts with their food... ever tried a garlic and herb vegetable stir-fry with walnuts? Or almonds? I highly recommend it!
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